Adoption: Baby may be sent back to South Korea; more on Russia's ban (links)

View full sizeIn this image from video provided by APTN on Monday, Natasha Pisarenko (left) stands with classmates during a lesson at her school in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. The blind Russian high-schooler's impassioned criticism of the ban on adoption by Americans has added a new and compelling voice to the chorus of condemnation of the law. Since her Jan. 6 blog entry complaining about the ban, written as an open letter to President Vladimir Putin, Natasha Pisarenko has attracted the wide attention of Russian media and, she fears, drawn the disapproving notice of authorities.The Associated Press

Russia's ban on adoptions by Americans continues to reverberate, and now a case involving South Korea has drawn attention.

The small orphanage cares for seven girls who range from 4 years old to 9. They learn reading, math,
English, art and life skills in the schoolroom adjacent to the orphanage.

Here in the U.S., the adoption of a little girl from South Korea has come into question. The Chicago Tribune reports that a federal judge Monday gave U.S. officials authority over the girl, a step toward her possible deportation.

South Korea wants the child returned, saying Jinshil and Christopher Duquet of Evanston of circumvented the nation's adoption protocols. The couple counters that a lawyer in South Korean led them to believe they were pursuing a legal private adoption of Sehwa Kim, who is now 7 months old. Authorities got involved when Jinshil Duquet arrived at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport with the child but without the proper visa for an adoptee.

The Tribune story notes:

The child's birth mother lives in a shelter for unwed mothers and does not want the baby back.

The
Duquets maintain that the baby is being used as a political pawn in
South Korea, which has tightened laws regarding international adoptions
while encouraging its own citizens to adopt. Despite policy changes,
there remains a cultural stigma against adoption, leaving many children
in orphanages, experts say.

Activist Jane Jeong Trenka wrote about intercountry adoption in a guest opinion for The Korea Times, highlighting U.S. adoptions from South Korea in general and singling out the role of Oregon's Holt International, a pioneer in adoptions from Korea in the post-war years. She compares the U.S. child poverty rate unfavorably with South Korea's, and writes:

Holt’s slogan is “Every child deserves a family.” Yet in Holt’s home state, there are 8,000 children who live in state-run foster care, with 200 waiting to be adopted. Why can’t Holt fix American problems first?

In the U.S. state of Minnesota, where I grew up as one of about 15,000 Korean adoptees in that state, Eastern Social Welfare is now the main supplier of Korean children to American adopters. Yet 97 American children are now waiting to be adopted there.

Russia's ban on adoptions by Americans continues to be analyzed and parsed. Jim Heintz of The Associated Press has a Q&A that boils down a complicated issue.

Parliament have dreamed up a variety of further proposals to purge Russian politics and civic life of foreign influences.

Among them: A full ban on all foreign adoption. A requirement that the children of Russian officials return directly to Russia
after studying abroad, lest their parent lose his or her post. A
requirement that officials' children be barred from studying abroad
altogether. A requirement that movie theaters screen Russian-made films no less than 20 percent of the time, or face fines as high as 400,000 rubles, or about $13,000.